CHAPTER XX. 



EASTER ISLAND. 



FOURTEEN DAYS after leaving Valparaiso, Easter 

 Island, the " Mystery of the Pacific," was 

 sighted. 



Easter Island is 2300 miles west of Chile, and, 

 though it is comparatively well-known by repute 

 on account of the huge images, hewn out of lava, 

 that are to be found in many parts of the island, 

 especially near the sea shore, it has been very 

 seldom visited. 



When first discovered by Roggewein, a Dutch 

 captain, on Easter day, 1721, it was uninhabited, 

 but the island is now used as a sheep and cattle 

 run, and belongs to a Chilian company. During 

 his second voyage Cook estimated the number of 

 inhabitants as 700, but this was evidently an 

 under-estimate, as in 1860 they numbered 3000. 

 Three years later the depredations of slavers had 

 reduced the population to one-half, and later an 

 epidemic of measles wrought further havoc, so^that 

 by 1868 only some 900 inhabitants remained. In 

 1872 there were only 295, and ten years later only 



